The ramblings over an overworked mind...education, technology, science, diabetes, web tools...you never know what you'll find with your Apple a Day!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

PE5_ComicLife2 for RILS

For Part 2 of my Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario for the ETC class at Full Sail U, I will be using a program called Comic Life to merge each group's cell analogy comic strips. Comic Life2 is a program that was part of our tech package when we enrolled at FSU. I've used it several times now, and really like the ease of use, printing/sharing options, features and overall "look" of the program. I didn't need a tutorial or any instructions to figure out the program...I just opened it up and took off!

Here is a screenshot of the Comic Life2 interface, you can see that there are only four panes to deal with:

The large pane is your working project, this is where you will work with your photos and other elements to make the comic page. Notice that each of the other panes are numbered: 1, 2, and 3. That's basically all you need to know! 1--Choose your page layout. There are basic blank pages with various numbers and arrangements of pictures. Then there are special layouts from comics over the decades, Euro comics, futuristic comics, Manga comics, maps, etc.2--Drag in your photos or artwork. The default here is for iPhoto, and you can choose an event, person, etc. You can also use Finder to select any folder on your Mac. Or, you can select the camera and take a picture with the Mac's built-in camera.3--Add Balloons or Captions. This is where the fun starts! You can add custom lettering and change the color and style to fit your comic. You can also add a text balloon or banner, you can adjust everything about it from size to background color including the direction of the speaking bubble.

I only used Comic Life in this project to merge four students' separate comic strips onto one page. I wanted to have them printed out in color, but save a little money! In the future, I will let my students use this awesome program...I know they will love it as much as I did!

Once your comic page is created, there are several options for sharing it. You can only save the comic as a Comic Life document inside the program. But you can choose print and save it as a PDF, then convert it to a JPEG (which is what I did.) You can also choose to email the page or share it on Facebook.Hope you enjoyed my review of Comic Life2, and I hope you can think of ways to use it in your classroom or in your personal life. It's a fun little APPle!